Monday, March 6, 2017

With the help of Jeff Kerkman, Education Multimedia Developer in the Information Technology Services Department, we used the GoPro 4K Action Camera to record a sheep brain dissection that students were required to watch before class. With the benefit of the camera’s extremely high resolution, we were able to get excellent close-ups of the dissection of the sheep brain and clearly show minute structures and delicate procedures. The GoPro 4K Action Camera was secured to a boom and placed about 8 inches above the dissection area. Students have reacted positively to the video we produced. They used the video as reference material during class and for study later after the dissection was completed. Students were able to see how and where to make a proper dissection cut along the brain and how to remove specific structures without damaging others. Implications for this particular work are that we can produce high quality tutorials for students to view outside and inside of class that are content specific to our class. You can always find good videos online, but there is usually extra or missing information for our particular class. Using the GoPro 4K Action Camera allowed us to easily tailor a video specifically to our course, which we can now distribute to our students. With the advent of this pre-lab video and an additional pre-lab reading assignment, we hope that students will complete the lab material in a timelier fashion and allow students more time for in class activities and questions concerning course material.Access to the sheep brain dissection video has been granted by Dr. Schanandore.More information about the GoPro Action Cameras can be found at https://gopro.com/.Submitted by James Schanandore, Ryan Stapley, and Jeff Kerkman

Padlet (formerly known as WallWisher) is a free web application that can be used to create an online bulletin board to display information for any topic. This versatile tool can be used to collaborate, in collecting ideas, brainstorming, and more live! Although registering is not required, if you choose to register, you can create a bulletin board on any topic, edit the title and description of the “wall.” After the wall is established, you can add a “post-it” note with open-ended questions, a homework assignment, a meeting board for ideas, or a multitude of different engaging activities. Text, audio, video, and images can be posted to the wall (videos and images automatically display a Zoom picture– a temporary pop-up window for viewing - when clicked). Padlet does not show which work is attributable to which student, you may want to require that students initial their contributions in order to get credit.At a recent conference, I attended, Padlet was used for brainstorming ideas, general discussions, and sharing resources among the group. What was great about this digital venue was the ability to collaborate with other colleagues from across the county on one space and to have that space still be available for review and reflection.The flexibility of this multi-platform capable tool means you could have one class Padlet for the year and share resources and links throughout the year. Submitted by Marjorie Bazluki, CATL

Tuesday, May 3, 2016

The proliferation of apps available for iOS
devices such as iPads and iPhones puts a treasure trove of tools into the hands
of instructors and students. Previously, sharing that information on the big
screen with the entire class has been a struggle requiring being tethered via
cables to the lectern.

ITS is piloting a new solution in the
classroom utilizing AirServer. AirServer will beam your iOS device
wirelessly with full mirroring to the installed PC or Mac in the classroom,
which is already connected to the in room projector, SMARTboard, or HDTV.
It is as simple as launching AirServer on the computer, scanning the displayed
QR code with your free AirServer application, and accepting the connection on
the computer and because AirServer supports multiple simultaneous connections,
you can allow students to connect to share ideas and collaborate.

A few years ago I
was looking for a relatively easy way to create announcements for a course I
was teaching. I wanted the announcements to be audio based only and a colleague
suggested I use SoundCloud – I’ve been using it every since!

SoundCloud is an
audio distribution platform that was initially created to allow musicians to
share recordings with each other. In order to use SoundCloud you need to create
an account, which allows registered users to listen to unlimited content and
upload 180 minutes of audio. There are pro ($63 a year) and pro unlimited ($135
a year) versions available as well with additional functionality. I use the
free version. I use SoundCloud to create podcasts when I want to create audio
announcements for courses I am teaching or workshops I am facilitating.

I’ve found
SoundCloud to be very easy to use, after creating an audio file with
SoundCloud, users are giving an embed code that can be used to share the audio
file in a course, on a blog, or on social media networks such as Twitter or
Facebook.

I know a number
of individuals who use SoundCloud to create podcasts for their courses and one
feature they really like is that SoundCloud visually presents the audio files
in a waveform graphic and allows listeners to click on a segment of the
waveform and leave comments. These comments appear while a particular segment
of the podcast is playing.